Across the Peloponnese

We meet you at Athens Airport on arrival. The day is planned around a morning landing, because there are two stops before dinner. The first is the Corinth Canal, cut through the rock and opened in 1893.

Epidaurus follows, where a licensed guide walks the 4th-century BC theatre with you, from the stage to the top of its 55 rows. A voice at the centre still reaches the back without effort. The welcome dinner in Nafplio tonight is the first of three hosted tables. Keep the day bag light: both stops are on foot from the vehicle.

A short drive north brings you to Mycenae for the first entry of the day. A licensed guide spends the morning on the citadel: the Lion Gate, carved around 1250 BC, walls of blocks so large later Greeks credited them to the Cyclopes, and the tholos tomb below. Lunch is back in Nafplio, and the afternoon is yours, with the path below the Palamidi leading down to the sea for a swim. Dinner is free tonight; tell us by breakfast and we reserve a table. Wear shoes with grip, since the ramp up to the gate is steep and uneven.

The Lousios gorge walk comes after about two hours on the road, climbing out of the Argolida plain into the mountains of Arcadia. Lunch is on the way. Our team walks the gorge with you in the afternoon, a gentle route under the cliffs to Prodromou, a monastery built straight into the rock face above the river. Dinner is free in the village tonight, at a table we book on request. If knees or weather argue against the full walk, say so at breakfast and we shorten it.

Morning is for an easy stage of the Menalon Trail, the waymarked path between the Arcadian villages, walked with our team. Afterwards, Dimitsana’s open-air water power museum shows how the river once drove the mills, the tannery and the gunpowder works that supplied the revolution of 1821. Lunch is in the village. Tonight is the second hosted dinner, at a village table in Arcadia. The table is booked for the evening, so the hours between lunch and dinner are free for rest.

Sparta is the first town on the road south, and Mystras climbs the slope just beyond it. A licensed guide leads the visit to the Byzantine city: palaces, churches with 14th-century frescoes and lanes rising towards the castle. The site is steep, with long stretches of open hillside. Lunch is on the way, and the afternoon drive ends at Monemvasia, where the evening is free and we book a table on request. Bring a hat and water for the upper town.

First light is why the trip stays two nights here. A single causeway links the rock to the mainland, and the car-free lanes of the lower town are quiet before the day visitors arrive. We walk in early, and the rest of the day runs slowly: lunch, then a swim off the rocks below the walls. The evening is free inside the kastro, the walled town, with a table reserved on request. Pack swim kit and shoes that cope with a rock entry.

Across Laconia and into the Mani, this is the longest road day of the trip, broken by two stops. Diros comes first, where a boat carries you through the flooded caves under the stalactites. Lunch is at the harbour in Gerolimenas on the Mani’s west coast, before the drive north to Kardamyli and three nights by the sea. The evening is free, and we book a table on request. Sit on the left going north for the sea side.

Sea kayaks launch from the Kardamyli shore in the morning, and our team paddles the Outer Mani coast with you, equipment included. The picnic lunch is on a beach along the way. Afternoon is for old Kardamyli, where 18th-century stone towers stand above the newer village by the sea. Dinner is free tonight, with a table booked on request. Bring a hat, sunscreen and a dry layer for the kayak.

A licensed guide walks Ancient Messene with you, a city founded in 369 BC whose stadium and walls still stand in open Messinian farmland. Lunch is on the road west to Voidokilia, a sand bay curved like an omega, and the Gialova wetlands for the last of the day’s light. The farewell dinner is in Kalamata tonight, the third hosted table. Bring binoculars for the wetland birds. If you prefer the final night at Costa Navarino, ask us before the trip.

Kalamata is the last morning before Athens. Our team walks the old town with you, then an olive oil tasting introduces the koroneiki, the small olive behind most Messinian oil, poured young and peppery. Lunch is in Kalamata. The private transfer to Athens takes about 2.5 hours, arriving in the late afternoon. Plan an evening flight or a night in Athens rather than a tight connection.